have not given up yet with cast boolits

[jeff223]

i am still tring to get them to shoot to my standard.i cleaned my barrel so there was no copper fouling in the bore and i tried to stick with only the cast boolits but when the group size is around the size of a basketball at 100yd its hard to stick with them,then i will slip one of my jacketed loads in my 357max and i shoot a round.then another and another.then i look down the spotting scope and i see thinks have come back together again.

i have a new boolit comming in the mail to try from a guy from another forum and that one is the rcbs 200gr sized to .359 and im going to try that one.i will have 25 of them to try out.johnh sent me some 180gr lee boolits before the group buy molds came in to try and they were at .360 and i have tried some sized at .358 with poor results.maybe the .359s will shoot?that is a good question?

i sure hate to slow the 357max down to make it shoot the cast boolits for me but i might have to.i do have a new barrel to play around with now and that is going to be my hunting barrel.its a 14inch 445sm TC contender.i will shoot jacketed out of that and my 357max barrel will be my cast shooter.i have not given up yethttp://castboolits.gunloads.com/images/icons/icon10.gif

[Singletree]

Jeff,
If you made a chamber cast of your 357 Max. it would probably shed light on the no accuracy with cast problem. If your barrel was made within the last few years, it is chambered with no throat at all. The chamber is simply made longer to accomodate the bullet and then it is a taper to the rifling. I went as slow as one can go in the 357 diameter bore by having a barrel chambered for the 9mm. No good, had the same experience as you. Till T/C gets it right my barrels will come from MBM Industries, Dover. NH. You can find them on the specialtypistols website, under On Target Technologies. The guy guarantees his barrels for accuracy with cast. Don't even think about that with T/C. 'course I could be wrong, I was only working custom shop for a year or so.
Oh, not all the calibers were made with this type of reamer. Those that were not can be very accurate with cast.

[44man]

Jeff, My friends and I have had our share of problems with TC. A hawkin that would shoot one hole groups and another that would put a shotgun to shame even with a barrel change. I had a contender in 30-30 that would get full of copper. Cast would shoot for a while, accurate enough to hit a nickel at 100 yd's, then fill with lead. They replaced my barrel and the new one was worse. I no longer own a TC of any kind. Lately they have been hell to deal with and it is almost impossible to get service or make them replace a bad barrel. Of course the new barrel will not be any better, so why try? Get an aftermarket barrel.

[Leftoverdj]

johnh sent me some 180gr lee boolits before the group buy molds came in to try and they were at .360 and i have tried some sized at .358 with poor results.maybe the .359s will shoot?that is a good question?

http://castboolits.gunloads.com/images/icons/icon10.gif

There's your answer, Jeff. Part of it anyway. Cast bullets absolutely have to be oversized. Sizing to .358 is at least part of your problem. I suspect the other part is hardness. If you are going to try to shoot cast with full house Max loads, you need to waterquench those bullets as you cast, size within a few hours, and let them age at least a week if you are using WW. If you have some linotype around it will give the needed hardness immediately.

Jeff's throat and leade should be good. I seem to recall that he used my reamer on a Mag barrel, and that reamer has given good results on about 20 barrels.

[jeff223]

yes DJ this was a rechambered barrel and i used your reamer.the barrel is a winner in my book.it will shoot with about anything going with a jacketed boolit.i tried backing off some with the w296 powder but you cant back off to much using h110 and w296.johnh told me to try the aa1680 but i havnt yet.that will be the next step.i cleaned the fouling out like you said before and shoot the cast boolits but the results were the same.if i only shot at 50yds they would be OK.i have dropped the boolits from the mold to a bucket of water like you said but i didnt age them,i shot them the next day.

maybe these TC barrels dont shoot cast boolits very good but i have asked that question on Specialty Pistols and at Graybeard Outdoors and i get the answer "yes they do" so all i can do at this point is keep tring

[bdoyle]

I've got a tc 357 max(factory) and 35 rem(rimmed). I have shot the max with checkered results. But slugging the chamber/throat I'll need .361 bullets on the max and .360's on the rem. Someday when I get my construction projects done I'll be able to try these out. I've got the rcbs200, a saeco245(4x) and of course out 180gr 375 lee.

Brian

[Johnch]

I shoot a older 357 max 14" TC barrel .( long throat)
I seat the 180 gr and 200 gr bullets with just the gas check in the case with the RCBS GC 180 and 1 grease grove with the RCBS GC 200 gr .
Looks funny but accurey is good enough for me to hit 39 and 6 in the last IHMSA match I shot 10+ years back ( shot over the first chicken) 200 gr GC bullet

I tryed just the GC in the case , I think that was long enough to start the bullet into my rifling , I think , to many loads and years

I don't have the loading notes handy , but I know I was using RL-7 at just over starting loads ( lots of clicks between chickens and rams )


Hope this helps
PM me if you need more help and I will try to dig out the load notes

Johnch